In Review: The Week of May 18th

On the Blog

~ Author Bridget Canning (The Greatest Hits of Wanda Jaynes and Some People’s Children, Breakwater Books) chats with us about bike riding to discover new perspectives, getting out of the house on a perfect writing day, and discovering what a character carries around in their pockets: “For creating characters, I like to separate the character from the piece and just focus on who that person is – I consider things like what that person would carry in their pockets or what’s on their Netflix list.”~  Poet Kim Goldberg talks to us about the impetus behind her collection Devolution (Caitlin Press) surrealism, Chinese martial art, the environment, and more: “The more the world burned and the more dilapidated my own body became, the kookier and more ridiculous my poems grew.” ~ We examine a red moment from Marina L. Reed & Marian Grace Boyd’s Remember, It’s OK: Loss of a Parent (Blue Moon Publishers) and the use of colour throughout the book to show movement in the journey of grief and loss: “Using colour gives a visual component to the movement of grief, not always forward.”~ We share three literary follow-ups to your favourite #Netflix shows so you don’t turn into the “Netflix are you still watching?” meme.

Around the Web

~ For Asian Heritage Month, CBC Books shares 17 works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and comics by Canadians of Asian descent.~ ALU fave Kai Cheng Thom is on celebrity radar again: Julie Andrews read From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea as part of her audio storytelling podcast Julie’s Library.~ Avoid sending your bookseller on a wild goose chase—find the title of your book with these tips. 

ICYMI (last week)

Tablet Fragments

For Jewish History Month, Tamar Rubin shares two poems from her collection Tablet Fragments (Signature Editions) about the impossibility of putting back together that which is broken, and the human need to try.